


Epitaph

by Buttons15



Series: Overwatch Hogwarts AU [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 09:09:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7634398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buttons15/pseuds/Buttons15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part of the Overwatch Hogwarts AU. Seventh-years Angela, Fareeha and Lena enjoy their very last moments at Hogwarts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Epitaph

**Author's Note:**

> So sweet it might make you nauseous or give you cavities

It was only one week before their last finals, only two weeks before their graduation, and seventh year Angela Ziegler had the blues.  She was sitting on the group study table in the library, helping out Fareeha and her Gryffindor friend Lena on a pre-test cram session, or, as the practice had been kindly nicknamed, “Mercy Lessons”.

Her informal classes went way back to their second year, when Fareeha officially joined the quidditch team and started training hard, every day. It didn’t take much for Angela to notice that because of the practices, before any given test, the total amount of knowledge held by her chaser friend usually amounted to… well, almost nothing.

And so she offered to lend a hand, kind soul that she was, giving the other her best perception of the subject’s most important highlights, key points and likely test questions. It was enough to get Fareeha out of the ‘Trolls’ and ‘Dreadfuls’ and into the ‘Acceptables’, even the occasional ‘Exceeds Expectations’.

Angela wasn’t surprised when, after the first couple months, her friend showed up with Lena to boot. It was still a challenge to grab and hold the attention of two hyperactive quidditch players, still a trial to make increasingly complex concepts simple and clear, but the blonde learned much from the exercise, and of course, she loved being helpful.

And while she did extend the offer to any and all students needing help, Angela always saved the best spots in the schedule for her best friend and whichever tag-along she showed up with. She twirled a lock of blonde hair between her fingers, lazily scanning the room, watching the Gryffindors trying to figure the exercise out… and thinking, thinking that would be her last Mercy Lesson and how melancholic that made her feel.

“Okay, I got this thing  _ nailed! _ ” Lena slapped her palm down on the table. “You almost done, Pharah?” she turned to the Hufflepuff, bouncing on her seat. “Break time, break time, teach? Is it break time yet?”

“Shut up, Tracer! Bet you got it wrong anyway.” Fareeha stuck out her tongue at her teammate.  

Angela couldn’t resist a smile. She would miss this – would miss Lena asking for breaks every five minutes, would miss the bickering between Fareeha and her friend, the kicks traded under the table, the paper balls tossed around the room, her trying to keep a straight face while chiding them for drifting off – she would miss this, all right.

“Yes, Miss Oxton, we can have a break now,” she replied, resting her chin on her palm, savoring the moment. “You done with that, Fa?”

“Done enough,” the woman replied, slamming her textbook shut.

Angela glimpsed at the last couple questions she'd assigned and made a mental note to come back to that subject later. Lena pulled a box of sorted chocolates from her backpack and tossed it on the table for sharing. The Hufflepuff picked up a pair of her favorites and cracked them on her mouth one at a time.

“Merlin’s beard! I can’t believe we’re almost done with this, forever. No offense, teach, but I won’t miss those at all –” Lena paused for a second. “Well, maybe the snack breaks. You’re good company, Angela… Fareeha is tolerable, I suppose.”

A chocolate wrapping was tossed. Chuckling, the seeker caught it with ease, snatching it from the air with her left hand. “Aw c’mon Pharah, with that toss you’re planning to go pro, eh? Eh?”

_ Like a couple of children, _ she mused. “Fareeha, Lena. This is a work ambient, please. Have some discretion.”

“Right, right,” Lena rolled her eyes, stuffing her mouth with chocolate. “I’ll miss the food. And, aha! The house cup, of course.”

“Definitely be missing the matches against the greens,” Fareeha joined in. “A hundred points for  Gryffindor! Seeing the halls go red at the end of the year!”

“Although…” the seeker absently trailed off. “It might be a good thing to… you know. Let go of the house rivalries… I mean, a chance to make new friends and –”

“Go for it,” Angela interrupted, grinning wide. She moved her chair slightly to the side, so that the sun seeping from the window could warm her back.

“What?” Lena frowned.

“Amélie. Go for it.”

“I – I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The blonde snorted and shook her head. “Of course you don’t. But a little bird told me…” she thought her next words carefully. “Amélie has… put up walls around her. For good reasons, I gather.” She paused, made eye contact with the seeker. “Nonetheless she treasures your friendship, Lena… and she loves you. Maybe as a friend. Maybe as something else. But she does.”

The short Gryffindor dropped her gaze. She had turned an interesting shade of pink and was nervously fiddling with her thumbs. Fareeha burst out laughing, and received glared daggers from her teammate.

“Listen to Angel, she knows people,” the chaser teased.

“Does she now?” Lena snapped back, straightening up on her seat, a mean twinkle in her eyes. “Because…actually… I’ve never seen you with anyone, Angela. It’s been seven years. Any boys ever catch your fancy?”

With her dark skin, it was hard to see Fareeha flush – a testament to how embarrassed she must have felt right then. Usually, Angela would skillfully dodge these kinds of questions and defuse the situation by changing topic. On that day, though, everything felt so final and fleeting, she decided to just roll with it.

“Mmmh. No boys, no. Can’t say that any have.”  Her wand was on the table. She rolled it with her index and middle fingers.

She had the other two’s full attention then, more than she could ever achieve in her classes, and had she known her personal life would cause such interest, she would have used it as bait more often. Outside, the sun had shifted and now caught her on the cheek.

“What about girls, eh?” Lena pressed, ever so malicious. “Maybe girls are your thing, yeah? You ever think about that?”

“Yes.”

A moment of silence. The two Gryffindors blinked at her unexpected bluntness. Angela’s lips quirked in a grin.  

“Um… yes, you did think about it, or yes, it’s girls you’re into?”

“Lena, I hardly think this is –” Fareeha babbled.

“Both.”

“- oh.” The two voiced at the same time, and the blonde’s grin widened. She shifted her position, resting her chin on the opposite hand instead, blowing a lock of golden hair off her face.

“Any other indiscreet questions you would like to ask whilst I’m in a good mood?”

_ In for a sickle, in for a galleon. _

“No!” Fareeha exclaimed, standing up abruptly.

“Yes, yes!” Lena jumped to her feet as well, putting distance between herself and the chaser. The dark-skinned woman picked up a pile of books and started throwing them at her housemate. Angela winced.

_ We’re going to get kicked out – _

“Did – you – ever –” with each word, Lena grabbed a tome in the air and put it back into the shelves. “ – consider – kissing –”

Fareeha vaulted over the table that separated them and tackled the seeker by the midsection, the two falling to the ground with a loud crash. Trying to wriggle free, Lena laughed.

“Out!! Out of my library, now! Get out!!” The librarian yelled from across the room, already making her way towards the rowdy seventh-years.

Still smiling, Angela grabbed her things from the desk and quickly shoved them into her bag, scurrying off with her friends just in time to avoid any possible detention notices from the librarian. They made their way through the door, Fareeha still trying to bloody murder Lena, the latter still too nimble to be caught.

She hadn't finished going through all the subject, but that was fine; she could give the girls a last minute review and they'd probably learn more under the pressure of the incoming tests anyway. They stopped where the way to their common rooms divided, and Angela bade the two farewell. For a couple seconds, she watched them go, tailing them quietly behind their backs until Tracer invariably ran off a half a dozen steps ahead. 

She took the opportunity then, closed the distance between Fareeha and herself and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. Before the chaser could fully turn in surprise, she tiptoed so her lips came close to her friend's ear, and whispered a single word.

_ “Yes.” _

* * *

 

“So what now, Angel?”

The two were sitting in the Hogwarts Express, sharing their much awaited and final trip back home. She had chosen the same vagon in which the two had originally met, the same vagon in which they had their first trip. Staring out at the windows, watching trees speed by, Angela felt a strange sense of closure.

“Zurich, I think. I have family in the city and I'd like to go to college there. Medical sciences.”

“College?” Fareeha tilted her head. “You mean, the muggle schools?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Lena had been missing from their vagon for at least twenty minutes - after Amélie, she presumed. Fareeha and her were sitting side by side, their shoulders brushing, and Angela comfortably nestled her head on the graduated Gryffindor’s chest, letting the other wrap an arm around her abdomen.

“Why would you do that?” a hand was rested on her scalp, rubbing gentle circles, and Angela closed her eyes. “Why study healing with the muggles when you can, you know, use magic? You're probably already one of the best we have around and you only just graduated.”

“We have a lot to learn from them, Fa, and not just their philosophers.” Angela delicately moved her hand to cover the one Fareeha had rested on top of her abdomen. “Their technology, their science - they're years ahead of us. The Wizarding World got stuck on the nineteenth century, and there are wonderful things that could be accomplished bringing together magic and technology.”

“You're such a dreamer, Angel,” Fareeha rested her chin on the top of the other's head. “I’ll hear of you, I think.”

She brushed her thumb over her friend's knuckles, focusing on the feeling of skin on skin. “Wouldn't you rather hear  _ from _ me, Fa?”

“I rather not have to… let's see each other often.”

A tightness in her chest. She rubbed her index and middle fingers on Fareeha’s wrist, drawing circles with her fingertips. She syched the movements with the slow strokes she received on the nape. They stood in silence for a long while, comfortable in one another's embrace.

“Angel…” Fareeha began with hesitation. “That day…with Tracer, back at the library… did you really mean -”

She couldn't finish. Angela smiled. She tilted her head back until the world was upside down and she made eye contact with the other. Fareeha’s expression was incredibly tense; she looked a bit similar to how she did five minutes before a quidditch match with Slytherin. The blonde pulled free from her -  _ friend's? _ \- arms and turned to face those chocolate eyes, pulling her legs up on the cushioned seat.

For a moment, she just held the other's gaze, both immobile. Then Angela reached out with her hand and touched. She touched Fareeha’s fingers and hands and wrists, then the soft skin of the inner arm and forearm. With the joints of her index finger, she traced the woman's features, dragging them over the chin and nose and lips.

She took her time pushing past the barriers of physical intimacy with uttermost patience and gentleness; she felt no hurry when she moved closer to touch her cheek on the side of Fareeha’s neck, was in no rush when she dragged the tip of her nose over the Gryffindor’s jawline. She was mildly amused when her lips brushed against the woman's throat and were met with a quickened pulse.

And then, the kiss - light and chaste, barely more than a peck, her damp lips sticking briefly to Fareeha’s dry ones - and yet such an intimate moment of shared breath and quickened heartbeats and warm skin. When she pulled away, Angela knew it had been brief, but she also knew in their memories, it would last forever.

She planted another kiss, this time on Fareeha's forehead, before settling down in her arms once again, smiling at the other's uncontrollable trembling.

“Let's see each other often”, she echoed, then closed her eyes and enjoyed the few remaining moments of her last Express trip.


End file.
